Various forms of both fully- and semi-automated order processing and fulfillment systems are known. They, and the various components they comprise, may take many forms.
In some forms of goods-to-man picking systems, for example, bins or other containers containing inventory and/or other items may be stored within, and retrieved from, a storage and retrieval system, in order to facilitate picking of items from the containers at picking stations. Items picked from storage containers may be placed into delivery containers, which are often of different type(s) than those used to store items, and which are provided by systems or other sources outside the storage system.
Orders assembled for delivery frequently comprise multiple delivery containers. Individual containers, once they have been suitably filled with picked items, are typically set aside in separate order sortation or handling systems until all required delivery containers for an order or a whole delivery vehicle are ready. At that time the multiple containers required to fill the order are assembled and provided to a dispatch facility for loading or delivery.
Empty delivery containers may be returned, following delivery, to the sorting or dispatch area and fed back into the separate order sortation and handling system for re-use. In other embodiments, delivery containers may be in the form of cartons, which are not returned.
While the use of separate order sortation and handling systems can work well for relatively small installations, handling up to, for example, a few thousand bin retrievals per hour, and either relatively few customer orders per hour or relatively few items per customer order, with large systems, involving tens of thousands of bin retrievals per hour or more, and hundreds or thousands of customer orders, each comprising tens of different items, this can become a bigger problem, requiring extensive conveyor systems for transport and sortation of Order Containers.
For this and other reasons there is considerable room for improvement in the efficiency of order processing systems, and components thereof, including storage and retrieval systems and the handling of storage and delivery containers.